TMNT #29

City Fall is finally over?! Hell yes, City Fall is finally over!

I don't know, man. Maybe it's just me, but I've become less and less enthusiastic about City Fall as time has gone on. I think part of it is just that it's too predictable; it was clear that the arc was going to end with an epic battle that results in Leo regaining his senses and the turtles (and friends) either beating or escaping from the Foot. Which is exactly what happened. There were only two things that surprised me:

(1) Alopex turning on Shredder. Yes, they set up for it in her microseries, but it was just so out of the blue at that moment and just so conveniently timed to interrupt Shredder killing Splinter. In general, though, Alopex has about as much personality as a wet piece of paper, so it's kind of hard to say she's acting OOC when she doesn't really have a...personality to begin with.

(2) Shredder revealing the whole Leo brainwashing event was just to test Karai to make sure she was worthy of being his second-in-command. Uh...sorry, no. That's just way too convoluted a plan for such a simple motive. Also, considering Shredder hates Splinter's guts, he passed up on a lot of opportunities to hurt the Hamato family even more with brainwashed Leo. Yeah, no. I'm going to rule this out as terrible writing.

The one thing I'm really glad about is that we can finally get the Northampton arc. I'm a huge fan of Ross Campbell's art, and also I'm hoping for some introspective character development goodness to come out of the next four issues. (Is it too much to expect that, considering I've been pretty meh about the series as a whole so far? Maybe.)


Teen Titans #25

I've been waiting for this issue eagerly, though it ended up being a little anticlimactic. Teen Titans has been hinting at Kid Flash's past for issues and issues now, and #25 was still more of a prologue. At least I can be pretty confident that issue #26 is when the flashbacks will finally, actually begin. Though this issue did confirm my theory that New52!Bart Allen is a combination of Impulse and Inertia—or, to be exact, he used to be "Inertia" and now he's more "Impulse." Which is like a kind of mythology gag, because now Bart is/was his own evil clone. (Random detail: I love the ongoing motif of Wonder Girl carrying around incapacitated male team members. :) )


Aquaman #25

I was kind of meh on the whole "King of the Seven Seas" arc, but this issue ended with a bang. The art is great, Aquaman emerging unscathed from an underwater vent (?) was badass, and Arthur and Mera's relationship was, as usual, fantastic. It did seem a bit rushed to me; after Mera claims she can't stay with Arthur to rule Atlantis, it only takes her one page (literally!) to change her mind. But I can't fault Johns for wanting a happy ending, and it's nice to have ONE series in the New 52 where the protagonist has a stable, romantic relationship.

Also, I really liked the epilogue with Orm. I'm completely unfamiliar with Orm/Ocean Master from pre-New 52, but I think his character is pretty complex and interesting here. I loved the way his brotherly relationship with Arthur was explored in "Throne of Atlantis," especially since we're pretty used to the evil brother trope. I totally did not expect Orm to stay on land with the lady he rescued during his Villains' Month issue at the end of #25. Yeah yeah, the whole "love makes you a better person" is cliché, but I still like the way being around Erin and her son makes Orm question himself about returning to Atlantis, it's such a great conflict for his character to have. I have my fingers crossed that (a) Erin becomes a long-term character and isn't just forgotten about, (b) she isn't fridged, and (c) we'll see more struggle/character development for Orm. (There needs to be more and more complex exploration of sibling relationships in the DCU.)

Though I do have to say, I'm dying for more information about what happened with Arthur from the time he first visited Atlantis, to his stint with the Outsiders, to when he met Mera, to when he decided not to be king of Atlantis. So many gaps and question marks...

** as always, spoilers for the issue below **

Something that kind of bothers me is that so far, due to chance or circumstance or whatever, Dark Leo has not been allowed to do something really "bad." He's had two opportunities so far: kill/injure Splinter, and kill Victor of the Savate. Obviously, I'm not advocating for him to have killed Splinter, but at least injuring him would have had a different impact. Killing Victor would be another turning point.

Why am I disappointed by Dark Leo's lack of viciousness? Because it conveniently provides an excuse for Leo to never make a heroic "mistake," and not only that, but the reasons are pretty flimsy and contrived, too. The comic would have a completely different tone if Perfect Leader Leo killed someone while brainwashed, but that would also set up for major internal conflicts that would probably have interesting resolutions.


If the post-City Fall arc has any sense of emotional sincerity, we already know Leo is going to bear a lot of guilt for what happened, even though absolutely none of it was his fault. And I'm going to take yet another opportunity to rant about this again, because it bugs me. My question is, what is Leo going to learn from this whole experience? Yes, it gives him tons of opportunity to angst, but...what's the point? To show him something bad can happen to him, and he can get over it? Was this ever even a problem for him before? The thing is, any one of the turtles could have been brainwashed, and any one of them would feel tremendously guilty after they've been snapped to their senses. The only reason why the brainwashing has more bite with Leo in particular is that he's always been portrayed as the most loyal and most dedicated to protecting his family. And...how exactly is he going to change from the experience? Become loyal and dedicated...again...?

It occurred to me that I never wrote down my thoughts for the Alopex issue. I think that was mostly because my thoughts were basically "meh."

I was excited for the issue because I love Ross Campbell's art, but the story was just incredibly bland. I agree with TMNT Entity's review of the Alopex issue in that Alopex still has zero personality. We know she's loyal to the Shredder because of a misplaced sense of family, she now wants to kill the Shredder because he torched her birthplace/original family,* and...?

...

...Yeah.

Sorry, but there's just no way I'm going to get excited about a character who has the personality of a piece of cardboard.

* Speaking of which, IDW Shredder so far really needs to read the Evil Overlord's handbook. He's alienating his most loyal henchwomen (Karai & Alopex) to the point where both want to kill him eventually, and he's betting a lot of his plans on his brainwashed nemesis. I can't possibly see how that could go wrong. (/sarcasm) In other words, IDW Shredder is completely Genre Blind, which weirdly makes him feel like not as much of a threat as some previous Shredders have been.

Cut for length and ramblyness.

( Read more... )

I read it. I have thoughts.

I've always really liked Karai from the 2003 series. She's a fascinating character who dances on the line of anti-hero and villain. She works for the bad guys, but has a sense of honor and tries to treat the turtles decently (well, until Season 4). She's an interesting foil for the turtles, particularly Leo, and Shredder's kindness towards her is basically his only redeeming feature as a villain.

Recent reinterpretations of Karai have been a lot different. I'm not against reinterpreting a character in principle; however, I've always felt that in order to be successful, a reinterpreted character must be as strong as or stronger than the original (talking about strength in terms of characterization). And so far, I don't feel that either 2012 Karai or IDW Karai come close to the 2003 incarnation.

So. IDW Karai. My problem with her is that she seems to be interchangeable with any other Foot henchwoman. She's not Shredder's daughter, but his granddaughter. Why does it matter that she's the blood relative of Shredder? Maybe it has something to do with his resurrection (I didn't read the Secret History of the Foot Clan), but other than that, I'm not sure. Her family ties to the Foot make her seem more of a mafia princess than anything else, but it's far from necessary for her characterization.

And then there's the fact that she's clearly resentful towards the Shredder, who is apparently kind of misogynistic, and she absolutely hates the turtles. So, IDW Karai is stripped of all the qualities that made 2003 Karai a multifaceted character--the father-daughter bond that mirrored the turtles' relationship with Splinter, the position of authority in the Foot Clan that made her a force to be reckoned with, and the frenemy relationship with the turtles that made it hard for them to see her as pure evil. What does IDW Karai have instead? A whole lot of ambition...and not much else.

She's not even all that sympathetic as a character. She doesn't have 2003 Karai's sense of morality or honor; instead, she's pretty bloodthirsty and indirectly caused the death of her own father without much regret. And, as I already mentioned, she completely hates the turtles. Literally, her entire character can be summed up as: ambitious, ruthless, amoral. And that's it. The only way she's sympathetic in the series is because of Shredder's (and now Dark Leo's) mistreatment of her, because of course readers are conditioned to root for the underdog. But if you can't make a character sympathetic without resorting to having other characters beat them up, you're not a good writer.

Don't get me wrong, she's still pretty badass and has a much better character design than her Nick counterpart, but she just comes off as one-note and bland. The fact is, she didn't have to be Karai. She could have been Pimiko, or just some original character, and the series would be none the worse off. This is not to say that all villains need complex personalities and motivations, but if you're going to make them plain vanilla evil, they have to totally own evil; they have to be completely terrifying, the way the Joker from The Dark Knight or Utrom Shredder from 2003 were, or at least competent and annoyingly persistent and obstructive, like Hun. And IDW Karai just isn't like that, which means she's fallen into Villain Hell: not frightening, not annoyingly competent, and not interesting.

There were things that I enjoyed about her micro-series issue: some of the paneling and color work was gorgeous. But as great art can never substitute for good writing in comics, and IDW's Karai just isn't as interesting as previous Karais have been.

I've taken a one-week break from my TMNT fan comic (partly because last week had July 4th), but I think I'm ready to get back into it this coming week.

I've been a bit intimidated and overwhelmed by several things: the sheer amount of work involved, self-doubt about my artistic skills, and the current messy state of the rough draft (even though that's entirely normal at this point). But after thinking about it, this is something I really want to do, both to improve my art and to express my love of turtles.

*Obviously, SPOILERS below*

So I actually liked this episode, it's on my small list of episodes from the 2012 series that I genuinely enjoyed (the others being "Turtle Temper," "I Think His Name Is Baxter Stockman" & "New Girl in Town"). While it was entertaining, I don't think the "character development" in it was well written; Mikey suddenly gaining the ability to focus seemed a bit Deus ex Machina, and it's odd how the venom didn't affect Mikey for more than fifteen minutes, while it seemed to act faster on Donnie and Raph (and Leo, though I suppose you could explain that on the fact that he got stung directly by the mutant wasp).

Some details:

- The show's consistent tendency to downplay/make fun of science is really irritating. Raph, centrifuges are a big deal if you can get one for free, because they easily cost several thousands to tens of thousands of dollars (which is a big deal for anyone, but especially for turtles living in the sewers and scavenging from junk heaps)!

- MIKEY NO PUTTING ONLY ONE TUBE IN THE CENTRIFUGE IS GOING TO DESTROY THE ROTOR WHAT ARE YOU DOING

"I notice you mention the idea of a telescoping staff for Don in the trailer breakdown as well. I have to tell you that this is an idea which I have thought about and which has been proposed a number of times, and -- even given how much I love tech stuff and gadgets -- I've never loved it, for a few reasons.

I wanted to quote this because I loved this explanation from Peter Laird's blog. My headcanon has always been that the turtles chose their weapons and they reflect their wielder's personalities; also, Don's choice of a simple staff has always been an interesting counterpoint to his general interest in science and high-tech stuff, showing that he's as much of a combat pragmatist as a scientist/tech geek.

TMNT-related.

- The 2007 movie: What I'll never understand is...why the hell does Leo never realize right away that Nightwatcher is Raphael? Casey Jones figured it out, Casey, the guy who's generally not presented as the sharpest tack in the box, but points out (correctly) that Nightwatcher looks like "a big, metal turtle." So why doesn't this occur to Leo? Not even mentioning the fact that he should've been familiar enough with Raph's combat style to recognize it when they start fighting, even if Raph wasn't using his sais. Not even mentioning the fact that Raph explicitly defended Nightwatcher's actions in front of Leo. Jeez, it's like Leo lost some brain cells back in the jungle or something.

- 2012 series, ep. 7 "Monkey Brains," the whole "fighting without thinking" schtick. Okay, so I'm not exactly a martial arts expert, but I'm under the impression that you can never attack without intent, and intent equals thinking. You might *react* without thinking (which is what Mikey does in the opening sequence anyways), but you can't *act* without thinking, by definition.

( 2003 animation goofs )

It gets difficult due to the number of iterations there are of the story.

Sis: So...is Leo the one who tries to be epic but fails?
Me: ...That's only in the latest TMNT show.